So, what does it all mean? PJM is desperate to show ads and they thought we wouldn't notice they were sucky old doubleclick junk? By using doubleclick, they have to share the take with them and then still pay the bloggers who're stuck showing the junk ads.

The original idea was for PJ to pitch the blogs as a group to advertisers. What's funny is that everyone who signed up for this deal is probably reading their contracts and realizing there isn't a damn thing they can do about the doubleclick ads. Remember how RLS told people that they could reject ads they didn't like? Ha! There's no way to do that with doubleclick. Everytime the page is refreshed a different ad appears, so you have no idea which ads you've even shown.

1 comment:

He's not very responsive. I emailed a request for an advertiser's kit on November 17 and he hasn't replied yet.

My working hypothesis is that they have no intention to sell advertising and the doubleclick deal is a smokescreen for the fact that they can fairly be said to have lied to the bloggers under contract.

The massive confusion over what PJM is supposed to be was caused in large part by their switch from the advertising idea to the focus on promoting themselves as media stars. Most of their bloggers never got the memo about the switch (mainly because Simon and Johnson couldn't bring themselves to come clean about it) so S & J are now frantically trying to figure out how to cover up for the fact that they not only have no advertising, but they don't even have a plan to get any, contrary to the contracts the bloggers signed.

Oh, BTW, Dean Esmay is offering to explain the PJ business plan to anyone who wants to ask him.